Innovations, New Trends, And Techniques Bringing Change In Indian Manufacturing Industry
Today many sections of the Indian manufacturing sector are extremely innovative. Among such innovative manufacturing sectors are the automotive sector, auto-components sector, assembly lines, IT manufacturing sector, and small components manufacturing sector. The Indian government has aimed to increase the domestic manufacturing sectors share to 25% of GDP by 2022. This will be made possible in some part by greater innovation in Indian industry.
One of the growth drivers behind the success of the Indian manufacturing sector is the use of innovative technology. Behind the success of such innovative technology is a greater willingness on the part of Indian firms to spend on R&D. Over the past decade, India's expenditure in science has increased three-fold and the countries share of global patents has been increasing as well.
Benefits of Increased R&D Spending
India's expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP has remained stagnant at 0.6 to 0.7 of GDP, however GDP has increased and so has the sum spent on R&D. Greater spending on R&D leads to innovation. Such innovation is visible among a handful of private Indian companies who are innovating in the personal protective equipment (PPE) space. Such innovation includes manufacturing PPE that meets the newest European Norms (EN).
Also, one of the largest truck manufactures in India by using R&D is manufacturing trucks that are better suited to Indian roads. Such trucks produce the right amount of power, have an ideal suspension, offer excellent mileage, and rarely break down. Small components manufacturers in India are spending on R&D to manufacture better tools and in hydro-forming, robotics and other areas. A number of such manufacturers supply to overseas and domestic automotive giants.
New Trends in Manufacturing
Today the manufacturing landscape is changing. While earlier manufacturing was mostly about the use of machinery and labour, manufacturing is more intelligent today than it was before and embedded information plays a big part in creating products today. The usefulness of such manufacturing processes is being acknowledged by Indian industries some of whom are adopting new intelligent and embedded technologies to manufacture products.
Automation in Domestic Manufacturing
One of the innovations of Indian industry is the use of automation in a variety of tasks. Along numerous assembly lines in India industrial robots are working alongside human workers. The use of industrial robots in India is not nearly as widespread as their use in more developed economies. However the fact that they are being used in a country that is still overwhelmingly dependent on human capital for labour points to a uniquely Indian business innovation.
Gradually the use of automation in India will increase and unlike many experts’ predictions, widespread automation in Indian factories should be expected sooner rather than later. Because increases in productivity raise standards of living, automation holds the potential to raise living standards drastically. The need to invest in large scale automation is imperative because an economy that doesn’t will be at risk of being forever left behind those which do.
AI and Technology Driven Innovation
Almost certainly the potential for AI in the manufacturing sector is immense. Although today the use of AI in Indian manufacturing is not widespread it is growing, and its use is common among newly formed startups in the manufacturing space. Society needs to be prepared for a series of AI led disruptions over the next few decades.
When technology is disruptive it creates new opportunities for consumers. Disruptive technologies today are one of the key drivers of economic growth globally. Such technologies have nearly transformed what many urban and rural consumers in India do in their daily lives. These same technologies are also transforming the countries manufacturing sector. In the future, the impact of technologies such as Digital Supply Chains, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), AI, and robotics will be even more acutely felt by the Indian manufacturing sector.
While India is still a developing country, it climbed 3 spots to the 57th position on the Global Innovation Index (GII) in 2018. The rise in the GII is certainly a reason for cheer yet India holds the potential to do much more.
